“I can't possess anyone else. Trust me, I've been trying to get inside Lara Casnoff ever since we got here. Which...sounds really wrong.”

“There was a light knock at the door. Cal let go of my arm and we jumped about six feel apart as Lara eased the door open. If Mrs. Casnoff had caught Cal in my bedroom back at Hecate--with the door closed, and me still in my pajamas--I had a feeling there would have been steely glares, pursed lips, and words like "wildly inappropriate".”

“It has also been Lara's idea that I go as Hecate, as a nod to the school. I thought that was kind of crappy-it made me feel like I was Hex Hall's mascot or something-but Dad liked it, and since he was the one footing the bill for this whole thing, Hecate it was.”

“... everything suddenly got twistier and more complicated than Mrs. Casnoff's hairdo.”

“Do you know anything about the Brannicks?""Irish girls, red hair," I replied, remembering a picture of them from Mrs. Casnoff's "People Who Want to Kill Us All" lecture at Hex Hall last year. I also remembered Mrs. Casnoff saying that if the Brannicks and The Eye ever teamed up, we were screwed.”

“Must be weird for you, having your mom here.""Weird for me, weird for her, probably weird for you since you had to give up your swinging bachelor pad.""Mrs. Casnoff let me install my heart-shaped Jacuzzi in my new dorm room.""Cal," I said with mock astonishment, "did you just make a joke?""Maybe.”

“But then you heard Sophie was coming to Hecate, and you decided to stay," Lara finished, and her lips twisted in the triumphant smile I'd seen on Mrs. Casnoff's face dozens of times. I stood there, frozen in place, as she turned back to me and said, "Mr. Callahan gave up a chance to travel the world with the Council so that he could be little more than a janitor on Graymalkin Island. For you.”